Tag: rideau ewes in alberta

Running Rideau ewes means lots of multiple births. This is a big advantage, but you have to be prepared to manage the extra lambs. Everyone on the farm needs to be on the same page, knowing which lambs need extra attention.
We’ve developed a system to monitor lambs that is very effective and very simple. All it requires is some carabiners, two different colors of flag tape and livestock marking paint.

Here’s our protocol:
RULE ONE – Any ewe with triplets or more receives a pink flag on her jug. Put the flag on the fourth rung down on the panel. (You’ll have to adjust this step if you have different style panels.) Each lamb in these pens is supplemented with colostrum at this point.

RULE TWO – Feed colostrum to lambs in flagged pens every three hours. The goal is to have the lambs fed four times within the first twelve hours of life. Move the flag up one rung after each feeding. This way everybody knows what stage each pen is at.

RULE THREE – At some point during the first twelve hours use the marking paint to mark the lamb or lambs that you select to be fostered onto milk replacer. (I usually look for the lamb that is the oddball ie. larger or smaller than the siblings. However, sometimes it makes more sense to choose the lambs that take the bottle most easily) Focus most of your colostrum feeding attention on the lambs selected for fostering. If a lambs belly looks full and the lamb refuses the bottle, don’t worry about forcing colostrum the lamb is doing fine.

RULE FOUR – Any ewe who has poor milk is flagged with an orange flag. If she has no milk, we give her two orange flags. Lambs in these pens must be given a very high level of attention in order to get a healthy start. Follow the same colostrum feeding protocol in these pens. If you think the ewe will be able to handle one lamb, you can leave one on her. After the remainder are fostered, keep a very close eye on the one you have left behind for at least 24 hours. Mark these ewes down for culling.

RULE FIVE – Once the first twelve hours are complete, the flag will be on the top rung and you can foster selected lambs into your milk feeding pen. It’s much easier to foster lambs before they are 24 hours old. Their suck reflex is much stronger.

And that’s basically it. This system has reduced our lamb mortality significantly. It gives an instantaneous reference for each person who comes into the barn. It eliminates the need for checking paper records to find lambs that need help. And when things get really busy, it’s an excellent visual reminder not to forget about these pens.

If you have any suggestions for how you would implement a protocol like this, or any questions, please share.

We have shared a little in the past about ultrasound pregnancy scanning our sheep. We were doing a group of 280 ewes last month and I wanted to post a little more information about it here. My goal is to share a little of my experience with you in the form of a few practical tips. If you are interested in learning to preg-check your own sheep, hopefully this is helpful to you.

Just a note on the situation here in Alberta to give context. In Alberta, only veterinarians can diagnose pregnancy in sheep professionally. However, because of the relatively small number of sheep in this part of the world, few vets are available to perform this service, and their fees would usually be too expensive. I have also never heard of a vet that can count fetuses. The result is that most sheep farms that are large enough are purchasing their own entry level ultrasound machines and simply checking for open ewes. That’s what I will be talking about in this post.

Though it would be great to be able to count lambs, there is significant enough benefit in preg checking alone to be worth the work and investment. For example, you have the benefit of being able to pull open ewes out of the group before expensive late gestation rations start. If you do multiple lambing groups you may be able to try re-breeding open ewes for a later lambing. It may also allow you to make a culling decision a few months earlier than you may have otherwise. It can be especially valuable in groups of ewe lambs which typically have lower conception rates.

Now for the practical tips.

1- Make sure the ewes are off feed 24 hours before scanning. A full gut makes it more difficult to see.

2- Your arm will be right between their back legs, so you’ll want some protective gear. A vet showed me this trick. OB glove for coverage with a latex glove overtop to make it easier to use your fingers.

3- Put your ultrasound gel into a dish. This way you can dip your probe rather than having to squirt some on the probe every time. This is much quicker and less wasteful. It doesn’t necessarily require much gel, so use it sparingly. Too much just makes a slippery mess.

4- Some kind of working chute is preferable for more than a few ewes. I’ve worked in a chute where I had to climb in behind each ewe and kneel in the chute. It worked, but it was hard on the knees, back and shoulder. Our Racewell sheep handler is ideal. It holds the ewe elevated above floor height, so that, when I’m sitting in a chair alongside, the ewe’s belly is right at a comfortable height. You’ll see in the photos how I catch the sheep far enough back in the squeeze so that her back end is exposed. I’ve seen some chutes were the technician has a space where they can reach through the side of the chute.

5- Place the probe on the ewes belly where you find the bare skin inside the left hind leg and beside the udder. I generally point the probe toward the spine and angled a bit forward. You’ll get the feel for where you need to be with a little practice.

6- Pregnancy is usually very easy to detect. Take a look at some of these screen shots to see what you are looking for. If you’re not getting a clear image try using a little extra gel. Sometimes there is a bit of buildup on the ewe’s skin that needs to be cleaned off first.

There’s a lot more I could say, but I’ll leave it at that for now. If you have any questions just ask.

These are the 50 best ewe lambs from our March/April 2016 lambing. If you are looking for the right genetics to make your flock profitable, you’ve found them. Visit our Breeding Stock page for more info.

I was walking pens today and I could not resist taking this shot. I have to admit Rideau ewes are amazing. Obviously we have some lambs on the ground now. I am going to try posting some highlights from lambing in the next while.